sobresvssommesConfusable pair

Quick tell: sobres is a adjective, sommes is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sobres” is an adjective and “sommes” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#30,813
“sobres” frequency rank
#405
“sommes” frequency rank
31218
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sobres sommes
Definition Pluriel de sobre. Pluriel de somme.

Where the eye mixes sobres and sommes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
sobres
6 ch
sommes

Visual trap between sobres and sommes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sobres is \sɔbʁ\ while sommes is \sɔm\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31218, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sobres is recorded at frequency rank #30,813, classified as anadj, pronounced \sɔbʁ\. sommes is at rank #405, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sɔm\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 31218, this pair ranks #305,191 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sobres vs sommes

Shared letters: eos. Private to "sobres": br. Private to "sommes": m.

"sobres" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "sommes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sobresosbres · sbores · sobbres · sobers · sobress · sobrres · sobrse · sorbes
  • sommesosmmes · smomes · somems · somes · sommess · sommse · ssommes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sobres" and "sommes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sobres" is an adjective and "sommes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "sobres" or "sommes"?
"sommes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #405 in our French list, against #30,813 for "sobres". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "sobres" and "sommes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sobres" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sommes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #305,191 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sobres" and "sommes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sobres vs sofres". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #305,191 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list